Council to update register over accuracy fears

CORK County Council is to take on 70 additional staff to update the electoral register, amid claims from a number of politicians that several voters have inexplicably found themselves disenfranchised.

The local authority is also to send a letter to every household in the county, in an effort to get the most accurate information it can on who is eligible to vote.

At present there are 286,569 people on the register in Co Cork.

Maurice Manning, the council’s acting head of corporate affairs, provided a detailed report to councillors on the issue yesterday, following a request from Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath.

Mr Manning said the council intends to employ 70 extra staff on the project, primarily drawn from the ranks of census enumerators. They will work alongside 36 council employees who are being dedicated to the task.

He added that if a householder failed to respond they would be written to again and if they didn’t reply within a specific time their names would be removed from the register.

Cllr McGrath said he was concerned about the accuracy of the register, because even if it was off by 2% it meant there were 6,000 inaccuracies and this could make the difference between a politician winning or losing a seat.

Cllr Tom Sheahan (FG) said people are still finding a number of omissions on the current register, while Cllr John Gilroy (Lab) added that a study he undertook in the Blarney electoral area showed discrepancies of up to 9%.

Meanwhile, Cllr Noel Harrington (FG), who is postmaster in Castletownbere, said he would send back anything up to 8% of polling cards to the sheriff because the names on them were unknown.

He and other councillors suggested that PPS numbers should also be used to cut down on fraud. However, Cllr Paula Desmond (FG) said she wasn’t in favour of that because giving out such private information could lead to financial fraud.

Cllr Veronica Neville (FG) pointed out that a whole street in Bandon was omitted from the electoral register for the last local elections, while Cllr Sean Sherlock (Lab) said there was an onus on people to check they are on it.